Martin San Diego | FCF

An ex-Thomasian swimmer sought the removal of the controversial residency rule of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (QC RTC) last Wednesday.

Anna Dominique “Mikee” Bartolome, represented by her father Domingo and lawyers Alfred Jacinto and Apolinario Caymo II of the Cayetano Law Office, filed a complaint for permanent injunction against the UAAP and the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for them to abolish said rule.

The bemedalled high school swimmer filed the case in light of her enrollment to the University of the Philippines (UP) after graduating from UST High School last March.

According to the latest residency rule, which was approved last April 24 in San Francisco, California, a high school athlete who graduated from a UAAP member school and enrolled for college in another membery university “shall take a mandatory two-year residency, except when prior release is issued by the Member University (high school) for the athlete concerned.”

Bartolome, by counsel, argued that the residency rule “is a high-handed move to curtail the movement of student-athletes from one UAAP member to another.”

She stated that UST’s non-issuance of her high school release papers was “motivated by no less than the bitterness of seeing a star-athlete leave its stable to join another UAAP university.”

She cited Article II, Section 13 and Article XIV, Section 19 of the Constitution; Article 3 of the Child and Youth Welfare Code; and Section 9 of the Education Act of 1982, which provides for the freedom of a student to “freely choose their field of study” and the freedom “to develop (her) special talents.”
She concluded that the league and UST “exploited” her because of the rule.

In a press conference in Quezon City today, Senator Pia Cayetano expressed her support for Bartolome in the case and her rejection of the residency rule.

Earlier, QC RTC Branch 99 issued a 20-day temporary restraining order against the league last August 16, 2013 to allow UP Integrated School’s Joshua General, who was initially disqualified from playing due to eligibility issues, to continue suiting up for the Junior Maroons.